By: Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg / Performed by: Judy Collins / Illustrated by: Eric Puybaret

“There’s a land that I dreamed of…”

This classic song has been transformed into a magnificent picture book and CD set.

Breathtaking and magical artwork by Eric Puybaret will carry young readers from a little red farmhouse up over the rainbow, into the sky where bluebirds fly and castles rise high in the clouds, and beyond.

The extraordinary soundtrack for this book is performed by Judy Collins, who has recorded what might be the very best version of “Over the Rainbow” ever sung. The winner of a Grammy Award, Collins’ glorious voice is one of the most admired of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her version of this classic will delight and touch the heart of every parent and child who listens.

As an added bonus, the enclosed CD also contains two delightful additional songs recorded by Judy Collins: “White Choral Bells” and “I See the Moon.”

Praise for Over the Rainbow picture book:

Creatively meshing folk-art flourishes with an ethereal sensibility, the illustrations well match the fantasy of the lyrics.
Publishers Weekly

The art is unique, delicate, and detailed.
School Library Journal

A New York Times Bestseller

If you like this book, youll enjoy these:
When You Wish Upon a Star
The Night Before Christmas

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Look Inside

Author & Illustrator

Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, authors

Composer Harold Arlen and lyricist E.Y. Harburg were two of Broadway and Hollywoods most popular songwriters. They wrote the songs for the classic film The Wizard of Oz, for which they won an Academy Award.

See more about Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.

Judy Collins, performer

Judy Collins has thrilled audiences worldwide for nearly five decades with her magnificent voice and thoughtful interpretations. Many of Collinss albums have been certified platinum and her version of Joni Mitchells “Both Sides Now” has been entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her rendition of Stephen Sondheims “Send in the Clowns” won Grammys Song of the Year in 1975. Judy’s film about Antonia Brico, co-directed by Jill Godmillow, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1974. Brico was Judy’s classical piano teacher when she was young and was the first woman to conduct major symphonies around the world. In 2000, Judy founded her own record label, Wildflower Records. In 2010 she enjoyed two huge successes with the New York Times best-selling picture books and CD version of Over the Rainbow, illustrated by Eric Puybaret, and her latest album, Paradise, a collection of ten songs, including duets with Stephen Stills and Joan Baez.

Read more about Judy Collins.

Eric Puybaret, illustrator

Eric Puybaret is the best-selling illustrator of Puff, the Magic Dragon, The Night Before Christmas, performed by Peter, Paul and Mary, as well as Over the Rainbow and When You Wish Upon a Star, both performed by Judy Collins, in addition to numerous books in his native France. His art has been called “elegantly rendered,” by the New York Times; “graceful [and] whimsical,” by Publishers Weekly; and “lovely…and indeed magical,” by Kirkus Reviews.

Read more about Eric Puybaret.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Puybaret (Puff, the Magic Dragon) offers a beguilingly surreal interpretation of Harburgs lyrics to the titular song, written for The Wizard of Oz. Leading into the songs familiar chorus is a lesser-known verse describing the world as a hopeless jumble, portrayed in Puybarets acrylic paintings as a rain-soaked, windblown cityscape. Giving a nod to the film, the setting shifts to a farm, where a rainbow appears at a girls window to lead her to a place behind the sun, just a step beyond the rain. There, cloud castles smile and wave, and planets and stars look kindly on the girl, as she gracefully floats alongside exotic, long-necked bluebirds. When she returns to her barnlike home, the creatures and celestial objects from her magical journey remain, turning the wistful tenor of the closing lines (Why, oh, why cant I?) into a statement of defiance that speaks to the power of imagination. Creatively meshing folk-art flourishes with an ethereal sensibility, the illustrations well match the fantasy of the lyrics. Grammy-winner Judy Collins sings the title track and two other songs on an accompanying CD. Ages 48. (Mar.)

School Library Journal

A musical classic inspires the creation of new images of sweeping horizons and fanciful creatures. The book includes a CD by singer Judy Collins. Her crystal-clear voice floats seamlessly through the lyrics, first as a solo, then joined by her piano accompaniment, broadening with succeeding lines and natural rhythmic interpretation of the words. Two additional songs interpreted by Collins make this brief CD a treasure”I See the Moon” (with children’s chorus) and “White Coral Bells.” Readers are treated to deep jewel tones as Puybaret carefully pulls them from one image to another with a succession of dreamlike scenesfrom a red barn and farmhouse to animated castles in the sky. Clouds and celestial objects float earthward to join a young girl on a journey beyond a rainbow into the upper atmosphere with dreams of impossibilities. The art is unique, delicate, and detailed. Raindrops fall with whisper-thin lines, elongated figures accentuate the hurried action and sweep of the wind, images appear in the clouds, a small child sleeps under the watchful eye of a parent amid musical notes along the path of the rainbow, and bluebirds become elongated creatures of grace. Reading this book with the CD requires awareness of traditionally repeated lines but adds to the shared experience. Mary Elam, Learning Media Services Plano ISD, TX

Downloadables

Download the Cover

Details

Hardcover with CD

ISBN: 978-1-936140-00-8

E-book PDF
ISBN: 978-1-60734-349-3

Ages: All ages
Page count: 26
11 3/8 x 10 1/2

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